Snake

the Snake is a fly I’ve been tying for years in different incarnations. I wanted a long, slender fly for certain scenarios in the Backcountry but I was never completely satisfied with the outcome. this version combines a sparse hollow fleye body with a sparse spun deer hair head to finally deliver a slender profile with tons of movement. Sometimes this pattern will turn fish that bounce off of every other fly, particularly in and around channels and points. tied about 6’ long on a #2/0 Gamakatsu SL12s hook.

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a close up photo of the Snake tarpon fly lying on it’s corresponding page in my tying journal

history of the Snake

the Snake is a pattern I’ve been tying for many years through many iterations. the first Snakes I tied were pretty close to Lou Tabory’s original Snake recipe. I was looking for something long and lean to throw at laid up fish in the inside bays in Everglades National Park and Taboy’s Snake seemed to fit the bill. those early flies were effective but the long ostrich tail liked to foul at the worst possible moment.

eventually I shortened the ostrich and surrounded it with a synthetic brush to try to reduce fouling but I lost some of the profile and buoyancy that made the original Snake effective. I tested a few other iterations before settling on a set of thin saddle hackles tied “in the round” and caged with bucktail. that combo provides the right profile and movement but it doesn’t foul easily and it won’t drag the fly down. the current version combines that proven tail combination with a sparse spun deer hair head and handmade monofilament eyes.

the ostrich tail, marabou wing combination I first discovered in Tabory’s Snake lives on in some of my shorter tarpon flies like the Mouse and the Taper Bug but the hackle tail found in today’s Snake is a much better solution to the long narrow profile that makes the Snake a special fly.